Douglas Faneuil, center, listens to his attorney, Marc
Powers, left, Oct. 2,
2002, outside federal court in New York after Faneuil pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor
charge that he was paid off to keep secret information allegedly given to Stewart
about ImClone Systems. (AP Photo/John-Marshall Mantel)
advertisement
advertisement
|
By Cyd Zeigler Jr.
Friday, February 06, 2004
Martha Stewart’s celebrity, out-sized personality and cult as a domestic
diva has deflected attention away from her gay co-defendant. This week, the media
and public are finally taking notice of Peter Bacanovic, as the gay stockbroker’s
former assistant, Douglas Faneuil, took the stand as the prosecution’s
star witness.
In testimony on Tuesday, Jan. 3, that spelled out the case against Bacanovic
and Stewart for insider trading, Faneuil testified that Bacanovic had ordered
him to tell Stewart that the head of ImClone, Sam Waksal, was selling shares
in his own company.
Bacanovic and Faneuil’s sexuality has, at times, been the pink elephant
in the media living room: noticed, but pointedly ignored. For example, a Jan.
25 cover story in the Sunday New York Times Business Section contained 2,326
words — not one of which was “gay.” Instead, Bacanovic was
referred to as a “bachelor.”
The Advocate, on the other hand, is one of a handful of publications that
have made the defendant’s and witness’ sexuality a focus of attention.
The questioning in the case has steered clear of the sexuality of either men.
A spokesperson for Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation said that the
organization wasn’t following media coverage of the trial and wouldn’t “unless
they were, in some way, saying that because they were gay, they may or may
not have done [insider trading].”
Instead, the defense chose on Wednesday, Jan. 4, to take aim at Faneuil’s
alleged illegal drug use. When asked by defense attorney Robert Morvillo about
his use of drugs, Faneuil admitted to using pot with friends “about once
a month” and that he had used Ecstasy two or three times. He had admitted
as much to the FBI previously.
The questioning was done without the jury present. Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum
has been skeptical of the defense’s questioning about Faneuil’s
drug use.
The questioning about Faneuil’s drug use aims to discredit him as a
witness. The defense hopes to drive a wedge between the two men and paint a
distant relationship between them.
In the media, the two men have been portrayed — by rumor or friends — as
everything from best of friends to strained coworkers. In his testimony on
Tuesday, Faneuil described his working relationship with Bacanovic as relaxed.
Bacanovic “was the best boss I ever had,” Faneuil said on the
stand. “It was a great working relationship. He was demanding, yet appreciative.” He
also called their working style “an easy relationship.”
Those easy working relationships are, reportedly, what had marked Bacanovic’s
career at Merrill Lynch. Bacanovic has been painted in the media as an East
Side social butterfly who used his social connections to land clients.
While the jury may see the gay men as two peas in a pod, the defense will highlight
for the jury the differences between them. The line of reasoning goes that
relationship that Bacanovic, 39, a highly successful stockbroker, would have
never trusted a 26-year-old assistant.
While the two men are gay, they reportedly travel in very different social
circles. Bacanovic spends much of his time on the Upper East Side with the
upper crust of New York society, sometimes being a “third man” at
dinner parties and squiring women to charity events. His hosted dinners for
friends have become famous for their guest list and extravagance.
Faneuil is more known for hanging out with friends in haunts on the edgier
Lower East Side and Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
But for Bacanovic, knowing how to order French wine and sip on a dry martini
doesn’t lead potential clients to hand over $20 million portfolios. Sources
close to Bacanovic know him as hard-working, first and foremost. The notion
that he is a party boy, they say, couldn’t be further from the truth,
although he has been spotted at some gay dance events and periodically visits
Fire Island Pines, where he has many friends.
“Peter Bacanovic is no social butterfly,” countered a source close
to the defense team.
 |
| Peter Bacanovic arrives at Manhattan federal court Tuesday, Feb. 3. (AP
Photo/Mary Altaffer) |
Born of immigrants, Bacanovic was raised in Manhattan and attended Columbia
University. After college, Bacanovic sank himself into his work.
A source who wished to remain anonymous portrayed the relationship between
Bacanovic and Stewart as being merely business associates, not good friends,
as much of the media has reported. “It’s not like Peter was taking
Martha out,” he said.
Faneuil’s entrée into the world of high society came from his
reported boyfriend, Robert Haskell, a society columnist whose work appears
in such publications as W and Women’s Wear Daily. Several sources have
said that Haskell initially introduced Faneuil to Peter Bacanovic.
Faneuil has put forward an image of a reserved young man. A friend from his
Bennington College undergrad years, “Blaise K.,” did describe him
on her blogger site, Bazima.com, as a college student who “started getting
fucked up all the time and really going crazy. When he got drunk we called
him Dark Doug.”
Dean Chronopoulos, a pizzeria owner for whom Faneuil was a delivery boy for
about two years in high school in Newtown, Mass., where he grew up, emphasized
the former delivery boy’s lighter side to an Advocate reporter.
“He was a great kid,” said Chronopoulos. “I never thought
he would be in the business world. I always thought he was going into the arts
or the theater. I was surprised to see him in the news.”
With a quiet demeanor, he at one point even asked the judge if he could say “beep” instead
of a curse word used by one of Sam Waksal’s daughters when he relayed
that ImClone’s stock price was falling.
When he originally moved to New York, he had reportedly set his sites on an
artistic career. The New York Post has reported that financial difficulties
led him to take a clerical job at Merrill Lynch, where he worked as Bacanovic’s
assistant.
Facing financial struggles once again because of his legal battle and the
loss of his job, he reportedly was again doing office temp work. Presently,
he works at an art gallery in Manhattan.
|
